Embassy staff reassure NZ relatives

New Zealand embassy officials in Saudi Arabia have reassured relatives of people in Saudi, they are in no danger.

In its latest briefing on the Middle East the Government said it strongly advised New Zealanders to leave the extreme risk areas of Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Syria.

Very few if any New Zealanders are believed to be in Iraq but 71 New Zealanders of Arab ethnicity have registered in Kuwait. Both countries are classified as extreme-risk zones

However, Jim Howell, the New Zealand ambassador to Saudi Arabia which has the lower classification as a high-risk zone, said today life carried on as normal as American and British troops pushed north from Kuwait into the southern zone of Iraq.

He said the advice for New Zealanders in Saudi Arabia was to avoid travel in middle eastern countries and think about leaving unless they had compelling reasons to stay.

He said the Government was not telling people to get out of the Middle East and that advice applied only to the extreme risk areas.

The Government said the high risk areas included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and the south eastern zones of Turkey.

"It is not saying get out (of the high risk areas). It is saying take stock of your situation. If you don't need to be there, consider leaving but it is not saying leave. It may be a subtlety but it is quite an important one when mums, dads and cousins in New Zealand miss that subtlety."

He said embassy phones were being overloaded with calls from worried relatives when they had no need to worry about the high risk areas.

- NZPA